Kangarooing Abarth...Any fixes????

sorry but it took a new clutch to fix this on mine at 60,000 miles

The saga continues!, The best way to drive my Abarth first thing in the morning is to accelerate and and not take any pressure off the throttle pedal at all if i do and re-apply the throttle this is when the kangarooing starts, So i'm kinda masking the effects with my right foot, If you didn't do what i do the car is almost undriveable, Anyway someone has suggested to me it could be the 'step motors' and i have no idea what they mean? anyone have an idea????

Cheers

Geoff

My car (Schui) is going in to try and get it sorted.
The car is dangerous when cold. The garage have a record of the engine 'misfires' on the computer. the system is saying that No.2 cylinder is misfiring. The garage tells me that the spark plug has low resistence and are going to change it.
From cold it is BAD, I blip the throttle before moving off and keep the revs up and it is bearable. If I get it wrong it misfires badly and the dash lights up, telling me to switch off.
When it first started, I changed to higher octane fuel and thought it was sorted, car was so smooth. But it came back (still worth it though, car is better on the good fuel). I have noticed though that when the tank gets low it gets worse. I don't know if it has the same gimmick as Audi of misfiring when running out of fuel?
Buggers are charging me for the diagnostics test......! I haven't paid yet, if it isn't the plugs I'm not paying. I must go and have a look at what the warranty covers.

The garage changed the plugs (£80+ bill) when they took them out they found faults with injectors and have replaced them (warranty) after the plugs were changed, the car was better, but not perfect. The injectors have been changed and it is a different car, much better. I will see what it is like in the cold as it is quite warm up here today.
I will let you know how it goes.

Mines done 69k on original coils still. no probs yet :-) or have i just jinxed myself

Car started misfiring again after a couple of days.
15000 miles, coil 4 faulty. Replaced now car runs well (for now).

Just to let you know, the car is running fine now.

hy there just wondering how bad you car were before you fit coils to it ?

hi all kangaroo arbath bad news boys if you got one u probly find that the daul mass fly wheel and clutch and consetrec all gone and thats not all when u fit it you got to go main dealer to set it up to unless u got a can2 and a x431 machine then you can do it yourself mines fine now drives like a new one LOADS A MONEY ON PARTS MAIN DEALER ON HEAD SETS MAINS BIG ENDS for engine so there you are THE END >>>>>>>>

Well, ignoring Billywick's rather negative view on the problem , here are my top things to check, in order (of ease and cost), to possibly fix the kangarooing Selespeed issue. I went through it and mine has definitely improved... alot:

1) Sparkplugs - I can't emphasize enough how important good plugs and the correct plug gap is. Check the condition of the plug for the classic symptoms. Is it white, black, coked up etc. The correct gap size is 0.8mm for standard plugs and 0.9mm for iridium plugs etc. I've got Denso Iridium's in mine and I really like them...

2) Coils - Check to see if you've got a coil either failed or on the way out. To test for a failed coil, unplug each in turn and the coil that doesn't change the engine note, is the failed coil. To test to see if a coil is possibly failing, you can do the resistance check. Put a multimeter across the outer pins of the coil and measure the resistance. You should see 0.75 to 0.81 ohm of resistance. Then check the resistance between either side terminal and the center high tension terminal. The reading should be 10,000 to 11,000 ohms. I found this on the internet and haven't actually tried it yet as I know my coils are fine. Hopefully it's accurate for the Stilo coils. Please correct me if I'm wrong!

3) Examiner - Get the car hooked up to an Examiner and have them run the Selespeed "End of Line" tests. This recalibrated the gearbox and clutch and massively improved the gearchange on my Selespeed. It used to be really clunky going between 2nd and 3rd and now... it's like butter.

Basically, a combination of all three of these really improved the Selespeed in my Abarth and now it's a pleasure to drive, whether cold, hot, auto or manual

Good luck!

Greggers, did this make that much of a difference? It may be just me but as of late I "think" my gear change has got clunky. The examiner would be a trip to local dealer and one hours labour??

Hey Dogs. It really made a difference to mine and I can't recommend it highly enough . The gearchange was quite clunky before (to the point where I was starting to think I had a gearbox issue) but ALOT smoother and quieter afterwards. It's especially noticeable when driving in auto. TBH, I'd expect you to get the same results.

I think it only takes about 15-20 minutes so I reckon you should be able to knock them down to 30mins of Examiner time if they're a decent friendly Fiat garage. Have you got an Italian independent near you? If so, give them a go.

G

I had the gearbox calibration test (passed with no problems), Is this the same as 'end of line test'?, As this made no difference to the kangarooing.

Geoff

It might be worth making them do a couple of clutch bleeds as well. Sorry, I forgot to put this on my little guide and now I can't edit it. I had that done as well as the end-of-line/calibration and it really helped me.

Well... I spoke too soon. The jerky pull off (fnar fnar ) is back again, despite my best efforts to correct it. It's absolutely fine if I disconnect the battery for an hour or so to reset the ECU and drives smoothly for a few days. But it then learns the new positions or fuel mixture etc and the jerky pull off returns. Very strange.

Might have a look at the air inlet control valve to see what that looks like...